The Clay Across Scales in Geotechnics (GeoClay) group focuses on understanding the properties and behavior of geomaterials in the Earth’s subsurface, including minerals, soils, sediments, and sedimentary rocks. A unifying theme is clay, which exerts strong control over solute mobility, chemical reactivity, hydraulic performance, and mechanical integrity in clay-based materials such as bentonite barriers, clay liners, shale, and geologic faults.

Our research examines clay across multiple length scales—from nanometers to kilometers—by integrating molecular simulations, multiphase flow modeling, and laboratory experiments. Through this multiscale approach, we advance fundamental understanding of clay microstructure, interactions, and dynamics, and, conversely, how nanoscale clay processes shape the emergent macroscale properties of clay-rich materials. This knowledge enables us to address important challenges in sustainable geotechnical and environmental engineering, including:

• radioactive waste isolation;

• municipal waste containment;

• clay-based geopolymers;

• geotechnical performance of soils;

• contaminant sequestration (e.g., PFAS, microplastics, heavy metals);

• carbon geological storage;

• geo-energy applications such as hydrogen storage, geothermal systems, and unconventional reservoirs.